The Wine Trials: 100 Everyday Wines Under $15 that Beat $50 to $150 Wines in Brown-Bag Blind Tastings Buy Now

Clearly blind tasting is the only even semi-scientific way of evaluating wine. We should value wines that we like, that taste good, rather than for nebulous qualities of their reputation and label. The fact that wine critics are not much better at identifying good wine than we are is a disturbing fact. And the shameful overpricing of wine in the United States, both with the government-mandated middle-men and the restaurant multiplying level, is a crime. Who could imagine spending $20 for a bottle of wine in Spain or Italy? Or that amount for anything but an old Bordeaux in France? Yet that's the bottom, the two buck chuck, of the US restaurant wine pricing.

Anyway, philosophy and overall guidance aside, this guidebook isn't all that useful. It highlights a scattering of good wines (to someone's taste) at a good (sub $15) price point and they are supposed to be widely available wines as well. The first ones I tried though were nothing special at all, and nearly all of my inexpensive standbys were missing from the book. With that lack of luck, I've moved on. Good wine ideas but only so-so on the guidebook side of things.Get more detail about The Wine Trials: 100 Everyday Wines Under $15 that Beat $50 to $150 Wines in Brown-Bag Blind Tastings.